Chennai-headquartered Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) plans to scale up the overseas contributions in its business from the existing 10 per cent to 15 per cent this fiscal. The bank is also planning to open branches in Dubai and China.

IOB currently has six overseas branches — one each in Seoul, Bangkok, Singapore, Colombo and two in Hong Kong. It also has representative offices in China and Vietnam.

“We are planning to open new branches in Dubai and China. We have already sought permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in this regard,” Mr M. Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director, IOB, said.

Mr Narendra was speaking on the sidelines of the 3rd Banking Summit organised by the ICC.

The bank is also planning to expand its operations to Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

IOB, along with Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank, is planning to set up a new bank in Malaysia. “The new bank is expected to come up in another three months time,” Mr Narendra said.

He further added that to fund lending operations overseas, the bank was planning another medium term note (MTN) issue of around $350 million. The bank had earlier made an MTN issue of $500 million.

The bank is expecting to see a 30 per cent growth in business during the current fiscal and is looking to add 400 branches this year.

SOFTWARE SUBSIDIARY

IOB is also panning to set up a new joint venture company which will help them market in-house software products to other banks. IOB is likely to have a majority stake in the joint venture.

“Things are still in the nascent stages. We have just invited Expression of Interest (EOI) to shortlist the consultant required for the project,” Mr Narendra said.

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